Personally attended service notification based on temporal and spatial proximity

• US 9,204,250 B2
• Filed: 02/19/2014
• Issued: 12/01/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 02/20/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sonic Enterprises LLC
• Original Assignee: Howard Lefkowitz
• Inventors: Lefkowitz, Howard
• Primary Examiner(s): MILLER, BRANDON J
• Application Number:
  US14/184,410
• Publication Number:
  US 20140235276A1
• Time in Patent Office: 650 Days
• Field of Search: 4554561-4566, 455/414.1
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/1095 Meeting or appointment
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2242/15 Information service where the information is dependent on the location of the subscriber
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2242/30 Determination of the location of a subscriber
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42348 Location-based services which utilize the location information of a target
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/027 using movement velocity, acceleration information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/21 for social networking applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/40 for vehicles, e.g. vehicle-to-pedestrians [V2P]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 68/00 User notification, e.g. alerting and paging, for incoming communication, change of service or the like

Abstract

A computer system may notify a user about personally attended services satisfying temporal-spatial criteria. The computer system may use a user location and/or information on already scheduled events to determine whether a personally attended service satisfies the temporal-spatial criteria. Travel time may be determined and included when determining whether the personally attended service conflicts with an already scheduled event. The temporal-spatial criteria may also include availability of the personally attended service. A user profile and/or third party information may be used to determine if a user is available and/or would be receptive to a personally attended service. The user profile may be generated from third party information, such as contained in an online social network, and/or learned. The user may be able to reserve the personally attended service through the computer system.

Claims

1. A method of notifying a user about temporally and spatially proximate personally attended services using a computer system, the method comprising:

the computer system detecting user availability for receiving a personally attended service;

the computer system determining a user location;

the computer system determining methods of transportation proximate to the user location;

for each method of transportation, the computer system selecting a transportation buffer time;

the computer system determining temporal-spatial criteria from a configuration based at least in part on user information, the temporal-spatial criteria including a weighting of the user location, travel time and a user profile;

the computer system identifying one or more personally attended services satisfying the temporal-spatial criteria, the identifying comprising;

determining available personally attended services within a geographic area;

computing a travel time to each of the available personally attended services, including the transportation buffer time;

for each of the available personally attended services, adding a buffer time for pre-service requirements;

the computer system retrieving available third-party rankings of the one or more personally attended services;

the computer system ranking the one or more personally attended services based at least in part on the user profile and available third-party rankings;

the computer system presenting the one or more personally attended services to the user; and

the computer system dynamically updating, based at least in part on the temporal-spatial criteria, the one or more personally attended services to the user.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying one or more personally attended services satisfying temporal-spatial criteria comprises determining for each personally attended service whether a conflict is created with an already scheduled event.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein determining for each personally attended service whether a conflict is created comprises:

determining a respective end time for each personally attended service and a start time for the already scheduled event;

computing a travel time from an end location of each personally attended service to a start location of the already scheduled event; and

comparing the respective end time and the travel time for each personally attended service with the start time for the already scheduled event.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying one or more personally attended services satisfying temporal-spatial criteria comprises identifying one or more personally attended services within a predetermined distance of the user location.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying one or more personally attended services satisfying temporal-spatial criteria comprises determining availability of the one or more personally attended services.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising reserving an identified personally attended service in response to a user indication.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying one or more personally attended services satisfying temporal-spatial criteria comprises identifying the one or more personally attended services according to a user profile.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising generating the user profile at least in part from information gathered from a third party.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the third party comprises an online social network.

10. The method of claim 7, further comprising generating the user profile at least in part from past user behavior.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein detecting user availability for receiving a personally attended service comprises:

gathering information from a third party; and

identifying a condition receptive to a condition-related personally attended service.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more personally attended services comprise a personally attended service selected from the group consisting of a show, a restaurant, a taxi, and a spa treatment.

13. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising program code configured to cause a computer system to perform a method for notifying a user of temporally and spatially proximate personally attended services, the method comprising:

detecting user availability for receiving a personally attended service;

determining a user location;

determining methods of transportation proximate to the user location;

for each method of transportation, selecting a transportation buffer time;

determining temporal-spatial criteria from a configuration based at least in part on user information, the temporal-spatial criteria including a weighting of the user location, travel time and a user profile;

identifying one or more personally attended services satisfying the temporal-spatial criteria, the identifying comprising;

determining available personally attended services within a geographic area;

computing a travel time to each of the available personally attended services, including the transportation buffer time;

for each of the available personally attended services, adding a buffer time for pre-service requirements;

retrieving available third-party rankings of the one or more personally attended services;

ranking the one or more personally attended services based at least in part on the user profile and available third-party rankings;

presenting the one or more personally attended services to the user; and

dynamically updating, based at least in part on the temporal-spatial criteria, the one or more personally attended services to the user.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein identifying one or more personally attended services comprises determining for each personally attended service whether a conflict is created with an already scheduled event, and wherein presenting the one or more personally attended services to the user further comprises displaying a personally attended service having a conflict based at least in part on a weighting using user profile information.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein determining for each personally attended service whether a conflict is created comprises:

determining a respective end time for each personally attended service and a start time for the already scheduled event;

computing a travel time from an end location of each personally attended service to a start location of the already scheduled event; and

comparing the respective end time and the travel time for each personally attended service with the start time for the already scheduled event.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein identifying one or more personally attended services comprises identifying one or more personally attended services within a predetermined distance of the user location.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein identifying one or more personally attended services comprises determining availability of the one or more personally attended services.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the method further comprises reserving an identified personally attended service in response to a user indication.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein identifying one or more personally attended services comprises identifying the one or more personally attended services according to a user profile.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 19, wherein the method further comprises generating the user profile at least in part from information gathered from a third party.

21. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 20, wherein the third party comprises an online social network.

22. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 19, wherein the method further comprises generating the user profile at least in part from past user behavior.

23. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claims 13, wherein detecting user availability for receiving a personally attended service comprises:

gathering information from a third party; and

identifying a condition receptive to a condition-related personally attended service.

24. A computer system configured to notify a user about temporally and spatially proximate personally attended services, the computer system comprising:

a processor; and

a memory comprising;

a location module configured to determine a user location;

a services module configured to;

detect user availability for receiving a personally attended service, and

determining methods of transportation proximate to the user location;

for each method of transportation, selecting a transportation buffer time;

determining temporal-spatial criteria from a configuration based at least in part on user information, the temporal-spatial criteria including a weighting of the user location, travel time and a user profile;

identify one or more personally attended services satisfying the temporal-spatial criteria, the identifying comprising;

determining available personally attended services within a geographic area;

computing a travel time to each of the available personally attended services, including the transportation buffer time;

for each of the available personally attended services, adding a buffer time for pre-service requirements;

retrieving available third-party rankings of the one or more personally attended services;

ranking the one or more personally attended services based at least in part on the user profile and available third-party rankings; and

dynamically updating, based at least in part on the temporal-spatial criteria, the one or more personally attended services;

an output module configured to present the one or more personally attended services to the user with an output device.